Aroma of a Concert

I no longer reek of the urine, pot, and beer smell, but did up until all of an hour ago. Just got home from seeing a band that I would love to go see again. Yo La Tengo. I have to admit, I went knowing very little and having heard very little of theirs, but it was just time for a concert. My last one was November. The opener went on for an hour from 8:30 to 9:30. The opener was Tennament Halls. Yo La Tengo went on at 10:00 and played to 12:15. Quite long enough for me to develop a taste for them and I started enjoying myself after the first song and was hollerin' for them to come back when they went off after their first encore. To someone that doesn't delve into the "cult following/non-mainstream" type music like what they would fall under, Yo La Tengo might sound like your typical rock band, but really, the trio knows how to put on a show. I don't know what their studio stuff is like, but I would pay $20 any day to see them play again. Jolly good show. This being my first show of 2007, I was moved to think about all the bands I've seen over the past two years. My list is as follows:

2005:
-June: Music Midtown (first official concert- I was 16). The White Stripes, The Features, Louis XIV, Bloc Party, Interpol, Devo, Lemonheads... and that's all I can remember. (GREAT pick for my first.)

-October: Weezer/Foo Fighters show. Mae opened. (Missed the opener due to traffic on 85. Weezer rocked as expected. Foo went poo and we left before their set was over. Heard the songs I wanted though.)

2006:
-March: Charlotte Martin. David Berkeley opened. (Loved [love] him and hope that he'll play a show in Atlanta I can attend soon. Disappointed in her and that stupid Korg.)

-September: The Raconteurs. Dr. Dog opened. (Forget the opener, this was the second time I'd seen Jack White in person! Man that was a great show! Plus, it was at my new favorite venue, the Tabernacle.)

-November: Mat Kearney. Griffin House opened. (Once again, I knew very little about both but was over all pleased with the show, especially for $18. Got nice and close to the boys at the Roxy.)

2007:
-February: Yo La Tengo. Tenement Halls opened. (Very pleased. Yo La Tengo has a new fan... at least for their shows. Where else can you get an over 2 hour preformance where the band members play themselves ragged?)

Next month, I've been invited to accompany a new sister in my hall to see Snow Patrol. I'm looking forward to spending time with this sister, as well as getting to see this band that I had no interest in until their most recent album. Plus, OK Go is opening and I really like them, though I group them with the Killers, etc. because they came out all around the same time, and that's a bad thing when I "group" an artist. What I'm really waiting for (literally I get excited at the mention of a tour) is when this artist comes back to town. I'm giddy with the thought right now... but of course, that could be lack of sleep. Nah!

Pretty Good Year

I'm going to quit posting if you guys don't at least tell me how stupid a post I've put up, but of course, I haven't given you any opportunites this month yet... barely. Maybe one.

So, not much of a public nature has been going on that's of any sharing importance. The only thing I can think of is the fact that this month marks a year since we've moved out here. In just this year, the county has grown so much. I can drive around and be like Deborah Clasky who has lived here twenty years now, and say, "I remember when that wasn't here," or "There used to be a gorgeous old house right where that building was." I do it all the time when I drive thru Snellville and Loganville now. I lived in that area for thirteen years and it's changed so much that you wouldn't recognize it if someone had moved away around the time I moved there. It's not that way here yet, but someone that visited us when we first moved out here would see changes now, especially where we live now.

We moved twice this year. Twice. I had only lived in two houses my whole life and then we live in two in one year. That's quite a shocker. I'm used to having new cars around every few years, but a new house every few months... I can't imagine living like that, but I know some people do. It was hectic enough. The second time, we did most of the moving ourselves, but it worked out well. We had a lot of help from our congregation. Everyone was willing and offered to help. Plus, the house was twice the size of the rental we moved into, so there was plenty of space to put boxes. The rental house. Was that an experince. Roaches are not the bugs to mess with. I'm sure everyone has heard my mom's story about the roach being on her at night... yeah, we had some unwanted guests. The house was cute and adequate, but thank goodness we snagged our house. I'm still quite in love with my room AND bathroom. My bathroom was recently painted a sea foamy green. Very spa-ish and all the fixtures are up and in place. Towels aren't for the floor anymore. My room will soon be a soothing grey with my old favorite, navy blue, and what I always wanted, lime green, accents. I can't wait. Overall housing worked out great in the end. We're going to be able to have a bookstudy in our basement once it's finished and there's plenty of room for grandparents as well. Plus, there's very little yard to take care of and the neighborhood is great, but moving back to Atlanta is still my ultimate goal.

As far as I go in this pretty good year, a lot changed too. I wouldn't have ever dreamed I'd move into this congregation and fall in love with it. I was immediately welcomed by three wonderful sisters who haven't stopped caring for me since. In the course of starting to pioneer, one has become my partner and always supports me. She makes it even easier to attain my goal of regular pioneer service by this September. Though her sons have thrown me for a loop this past year, they've come to be just like my brothers. I got my driver's license in April of this past pretty good year and I've used it and abused it. Hopped a few curbs. Almost been tagged with a few tickets. Used it to go to Atlanta and back two dozen times. It's the ultimate freedom. I started babysitting, which I will be free from on March 31, 2007 when her father gets married (the wedding of the year: Mountain Man to Totally Like Nineties Woman). I've come to adore the little brat I babysit and give her the hardest time about the stuff she does. At least I can keep her mouth and hands clean. New glasses, a recent addition in this past pretty good year, but they're still included. Then there's the friends. Within one year, only two of my "best friend" slots remain occupied by the same people. Some left the truth. Some I left. Some I gained. Either way, my current circle of friends from all ages is probably the best group I've had in 10 years. (I really appreciate all of y'all- including my family!) That's the thing that makes this past year pretty good. I've got a life! Once in a while, I'll get it together enough to have one, so I enjoy it while it lasts.

So I leave you with a picture of my new glasses. (Click Me!...except mine are the blue ones)

Half-way thru my vacation

Nothing much has been going on lately, I guess, that's really been of importance for the blog, or it's been stuff I've wanted to keep from the blog since most of it has been related to my personal life. Plus, I've been on kinda a "vacation." I got my time in for December like a week before, on December 22 I think. As a result, I have not gotten my usual dish of pioneer gossip, which we aren't supposed to do and I've gotten much better at it, but still can't seem to keep my mouth shut about somethings. I only share most of the time because I'm defending someone. Today, it was gossip about every family you know and tell their business. I successfully kept my mouth shut as far as spilling beans on a few situations that came up that I knew stuff about. If I were out in service back in the O.C., other things might be happening, especially since Bubbles broke up with Andy (drama I'm not going to discuss), but I'm not. I've been in the ATL since Saturday. Visited "Drama-ville" on Tuesday and Wednesday of last week. Population: 2- Hickler-Stickler (aka- Barbie) and Froggie. I'm not even thinking about starting with THAT melted marshmellow mess. I switched over to the new blogger a few minutes ago. Yeah... see how boring things are right now? I was thinking about starting instead of "Affie Recommends" when we get DSL this month (YAY) an "Albums of the Week" thing. I've finally got all my music on my zen (2,995 songs- so close) and I'm in certain moods that influence what I pick for the week or what I buy for $7 at Wuxtry's, and although most of it is stuff y'all have heard of, I think I'd rather do that, though it would tie me to the computer once a week instead of once a month, but with there only being three of us blogging (besides P. June, but she's on a different site), that's not such a bad thing.

Blogging from my e-mail

Here H.n.B. I'm not doing this begrudingly. I actually have been wanting to try this since I asked you how to do it months ago and totally ignored the e-mail with the instructions until it mysteriously disappeared on me. Since I'm in my e-mail, I'm copy+pasting something from an e-mail Easel sent me since she's the only one that really does forwards anymore and I seem to enjoy getting the ones like this. So here's the part about November Babies:

NOVEMBER BABY

Trustworthy and loyal. Very passionate and

dangerous. Wild at times. Knows how to have fun.

Sexy and mysterious. Everyone is drawn towards

your inner and outer beauty and independent

personality. Playful, but secretive. Very emotional

and temperamental sometimes. Meets new people

easily and very social in a group. Fearless and

independent. Can hold their own. Stands out in a

crowd. Essentially very smart. Usually, the

greatest men are born in this month. If you ever

begin a relationship with someone from this month,

hold on to them because their one of a kind. repost

in 5 mins & you will excel in a major event coming

up sometime this month.

Mindless TV

I'm forever getting on to Poly about his mindless TV, whether it's Deal or No Deal or Parental Control (but that one's pretty good, I must admit. I'm a sucker for MTV reality). This time, I've found my junk reality TV. It's called Beauty and the Geek. I slightly remember when they first started advertising this show on the WB and thinking it was a bunch of crap. I think most reality shows are a bunch of crap. A few weeks ago, Mehsha was down sick and missed the Sunday meeting. When we came home, she was veging watching Beauty and the Geek. I got sucked in. That quickly. All of five minutes had passed since I walked into the house and I was hooked on the show.

The concept is pretty basic. Eight "beauties" are paired off with eight "geeks" and they are supposed to benefit from the experience. Most of them say they do. I don't know how sincere the first couple that gets eliminated can say that, but I know the last two couples have definitely learned something. Each episode, there are two challenges. One for the guys to learn more about etiquette and dating, girls in general. The girls' challenge is supposed to help them learn more over all. The winner of the girls' challenge protects herself and her partner from the elimination round and the winner of the guys' challenge does the same. Each group gets to pick who they want to go to the elimination round. In the elimination round, the girls are tested on the things that they were supposed to learn and study for their challenge and the guys are tested on things that they did for their challenge. Overall, it sounds fairly boring with me just explaining it, but when you put the ditziest and prettiest girls in with the brainiest and dorkiest guys, it makes for quite the entertaining show. There are tons of funny quirks that accompany a reality TV show, like the fact that after the guys walk out and present themselves to the girls, a girl must pick the guy and then they have to pick a bedroom. The weird thing about the bedrooms is, some of them have two twin beds and some of them have a queen bed. That makes for some interesting points in the show. (Not like that. Shame, shame...) Of course, there's the unavoidable reality show drama, etc. Typically, you have to shoot me in the head, tie me to the chair, and sit me right up at the TV to get me to watch reality shows, but this one is so much fun and I really like to watch it.

At this point, MTV is playing reruns of the show daily. They play two episodes at 5 PM and 6 PM. Now, the CW (UPN and the WB meshed together) is embarking on the third season Wednesday, January 3rd at 8 PM. I've finally found some Wednesday night TV, and it's quite hilarious. Check it out.

The first supper

I'm still quite excited about this, so I'm going to give a quick shout about it on the blog. I cooked dinner for the first time from scratch last night! It's pretty miraculous considering I cooked, it was edible, and it didn't involve rice. I made spinach and ricotta cheese ravioli. It was tasty. I was in EarthFare yesterday and I looked in the frozen foods case and saw ravioli. I asked mom and she said that we could have them for dinner. So I started pulling them all out and looking at the ingredients. Well, everyone of them said "may contain nuts." I can't stand that. So I was bummed for a moment and then mom said that we can make our own and she would teach me. You guys wouldn't believe how easy it is to make pasta from scratch! Though we had a mishap where the egg mixture broke through the flour dam and went all over the counter, we fixed it and I did it by myself. Mom supervised and helped with the filling since there was no recipe for it. It was absolutely cool to cook my own dinner, and it not be beans and rice. It kinda gave me the idea that if I had the resources, I'd like to make my own food completely nut free and like market it places. There are tons of people with peanut and nut allergies and I'm sure they get just as frustrated as I do, and my mom for that matter. She told me I had to start learning how to cook my own stuff or I won't ever get to eat anything but rice when I move out on my own.

I'm no longer opposed to learning how to cook. It's actually fun.

P.S.- I'm babysitting until 11 PM tonight. Just had to share that too.

Can't wait til April

So I've been planning on this since I had my phone for a year on July 4th (yeah, national holiday. We thought it would be a good day to renew our service). Shortly after I got my phone, maybe six months, I was steeped in txting. It's probably a hobby of mine by now. Definetly a habit if not a hobby. I would say habit because it costs me money- a lot of money usually, but it's too much fun to quit. When I started I knew that I would need something with more of a key board than just my 12 button number pad. So I started looking at the different multimedia phones with the full or extended key pad. Well, I'm all for cute, and none of the ones Cingular had were cute enough for me. Blackberry. Cute (and yummy) name. Not to cute phone. A few weeks ago, I stopped in the Cingular store to just look and see if they were cuter in person or something wasn't on the web. There's no getting me to leave Cingular. We've been with them since "Bellsouth Wireless." Whatever the motivation, I wanted to look and see about new phones. I'm slightly lost and the guy behind the counter can see that but he was really nice to me and asked me what I was looking for. I explained that I was looking to get a new phone (duh. Why else would I be standing in front of a display of phones?). I gave him some details of what I wanted, and that my biggest requirement was that it have a key pad with all the letters on it and I didn't have to press multiple times to get the letter I wanted. He showed me the few that they had and I said I wasn't too keen on Blackberry because they just weren't quite me. ( I didn't tell the clerk they weren't cute enough. I wanted him to take me a little more seriously than that.) He then tried to win me over to the Blackberry side. I am easily swayed. He showed me his and was bragging about sending paragraph long txts. I said I did than anyway, it just took so long. He knew what I was talking about. He let me test his out and try some different features. It was so WAY cooler than my little flip piece of junk that has begun to look like a piece of junk. Although the Blackberry was very alluring, I told him it just didn't seem to be what I was looking for. He must have been able to tell that I was looking for one cuter and told me that Blackberry was coming out with a new phone. The Blackberry Pearl. He showed me that website on the Internet (on his phone) and I was quite taken. This phone is so for me. It doesn't have seprate keys for each of the letters of the alphabet, but it meets every other criteria so the fact that some letters share keys doesn't matter to me. Its smaller than the other Blackberry products and that's a big thing for me. I didn't want something so bulky, even though I carry around bags big enough to put a file cabinet in. Plus, it would be perfect since I don't have Internet at my house, I can use it on the phone with a usage plan. It's just exactally what I want. It's just going to take some saving on my end, but I'll be there by April.

It's it loverly?